View full sizeThomas E. Perez, right, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, announces that the U.S. Justice Department will investigate reports that Cleveland police use excessive force on suspects. He is joined by Police Chief Michael McGrath, far left, and Public Safety Director Martin Flask.Peggy Turbett, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The U.S. Justice Department will launch a sweeping investigation into the use of force by Cleveland police officers, the adequacy of their training and supervision as well asthe measures in place to hold them accountable for misconduct.

Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said during a news conference Thursday that the probe will focus on claims that Cleveland officers use excessive force -- including unwarranted deadly force -- and will draw upon feedback from the community and direct interaction with officers in the field.

"This will be a thorough, fair and independent review," Perez said. "We will follow the facts where they lead. We will peel the onion to its core and leave no stone unturned. We will gather information from as many sources as possible."

Perez and U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach emphasized that the investigation will center on patterns within the department as a whole, not the behavior of specific officers. They also saidthat the inquiry wasnotprovoked by a particular event.

Civil rights advocates have been calling for a federal investigation of Cleveland police since 2011 after The Plain Dealer published a series of stories based on hundreds of records dealing with officers using non-deadly force and the administrative reviews that followed.

Dettelbach said in an interview Thursday afternoon that publicly reported incidents in recent years and requests from community leaders spurred the Justice Department to take up the issue.

He also said that Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson -- as well as U.S. Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, leaders of the NAACP and members of the local clergy -- joined those calling for an investigation in December, following a controversial police chase in which a third of the city's on-duty police officers participated.

The half-hour pursuit ended in an East Cleveland parking lot with a barrage of police gunfire that killed two unarmed suspects.

City officials assembled a special panel to determine whether the officers involved followed departmental policies. That review is ongoing.

But Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, whose office handled a separatecriminal investigation, declared the incident a "systemic failure" of the police department.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty is expected to present the state's findings to a grand jury to determine if criminal charges should be filed.

Jackson, who appeared at the news conference Thursday with city Safety Director Martin Flask and Police Chief Michael McGrath, said that the city recently had hired a consultant to review the police department's policies and procedures in the wake of the shooting.

But the public might perceive the results as tainted by the consultant's contractual obligation to the city, he said. So Jackson invited the federal government to conduct an independent review.

"If there are suggestions that we need to do better, we will gladly change, because our goal is to have a professional police division and have trust with the public," Jackson said. "If it's found that what we do is proper and our policies are appropriate, we will affirm what we have done and continue to do it."

Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Jeffery Follmer said in an interview Thursday that the union also welcomes the probe and is confident that investigators will find that officers conduct themselves appropriately and in keeping with departmental policies.

Follmer said that he is especially encouraged to hear that Justice Department investigators plan to ride along with officers, to experience the challenges police face every day.

But Follmer criticized the city for seeking multiple reviews of the department and the Nov. 29 shooting, and he reaffirmed the union's call for McGrath's resignation.

"It's kind of embarrassing that we have a chief like this right now," Follmer said. "When is the chief going to take responsibility for his department and stand up for his officers? For the morale of the police department, he needs to tell the public that our policies are solid and don't need to be reviewed by 10,000 people."

Dettelbach and staff members began holding meetings Thursday afternoon with police union leaders, local ministers, and several civil rights organizations, including the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union, to explain the investigative process.

Federal reviews of entire departments are referred to as "pattern and practice" investigations and typically take between 12 to 18 months to complete.

The Justice Department's power to conduct the investigations dates to a 1994 law passed after white Los Angeles police officers were accused of making racial slurs as they beat motorist Rodney King. The officers were later acquitted.

Pattern-and-practice investigations can result in consent decrees, binding court orders requiring departments to reform. Other investigations end with departments voluntarily agreeing to reforms.

Perez said Thursday that under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department has opened more investigations of police or sheriff's departments than ever before in the nearly two decades since the law's passage. Among the cities that recently adopted major policy changes on account of a federal probe are Seattle, Portland and New Orleans, he said.

The policies and conduct of Cleveland police have caught the Justice Department's attention in the past.

In 2000, the federal government launched an investigation into claims that Cleveland police repeatedly violated residents' civil rights.

The investigators criticized the Police Department, stating that a lack of documentation raised "concerns about the competency, thoroughness and impartiality of use-of-force investigations," and that some police shootings "may have been avoidable."

Cleveland later signed a settlement agreement with federal officials, who were to monitor for a year how the department investigated police shootings, respond to citizen complaints and treat prisoners in City Jail.

Perez and Dettelbach would not comment Thursday on how well the city has adhered to its promises. But a review of that agreement and its outcome will factor into the new investigation, they said.

By July 2011, civil rights advocates were calling for another federal investigation, as the accusations of brutality mounted and became the theme of a flurry of lawsuits.

In one case, a Cleveland Heights man accused four Cleveland police officers -- Paul Crawford, Martin Lentz, Christopher Randolph and Kevin Smith -- of assaulting him after a New Year's Day arrest.

The suit contends that Edward Henderson surrendered peacefully but was kicked and struck while in handcuffs after leading officers on what police have described as a dangerous high-speed car chase in Cleveland. Henderson, 42, crashed his minivan near East 38th Street and South Marginal Road.

The officers have denied wrongdoing. Henderson pleaded guilty to felonious assault on a police officer for his reckless driving during the chase and was sentenced to three years in prison.

The officers accused of attacking him also were charged with felonious assault and obstruction in connection with the incident. The Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office later dismissed those charges as federal agents took over the case.

The matter is pending, Dettelbach said Thursday.

As the Henderson case gained traction in 2011, The Plain Dealer launched its own investigation into police use of force and the administration's response to it.

Plain Dealer reporter Henry Gomez and then-reporter Gabriel Baird found that two of the officers facing charges in the Henderson case -- Lentz and Smith -- were among the most frequent users of force since they were hired in 2008.

All four officers and two others, who also were facing criminal charges related to their use of force, were hired under Jackson's administration. Three of them had a history of financial problems, drug use or misdemeanor arrest records, the reporters found.

Gomez and Baird discovered that the six officers in question had scuffled with suspects 39 times since February 2009. McGrath and his command staff ruled the use of force justified in every case, though some of the reports contained discrepancies and conflicting statements.

A Plain Dealer data analysis also found that between October 2005 and March 2011, officers used electrical-shock devices to gain control of struggling suspects 969 times. And during that period, McGrath and other supervisors under his command found the use of a Taser to be appropriate in all but five of the cases they reviewed.

Experts interviewed for that story said that the 99.5 percent clearance rate "strains credibility" and suggests a "rubber-stamp process" of reviewing use of force cases.

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